


The Colors of a Memory

by Unholy_Author



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Fluff, F/F, Mission Gone Wrong, Multi, Tag As I Go, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 11:02:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11206740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unholy_Author/pseuds/Unholy_Author
Summary: Sombra is captured while on an undercover recon mission, leading to her two partners tracking her down and staging a rescue, but they don't find exactly what they want.





	The Colors of a Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Will I ever stop writing Symbramaker? No.

"Sombra," Amélie began as she squinted at the other woman from across the room. ",is that my shirt?" 

Sombra glanced down at her outfit reflexively, though she knew exact what she had on. The offending shirt was a crop top, pale pink with stylised writing on the front in silver thread. 

"No." She decided, looking back up. 

"No." Amélie echoed with faint amusement in her voice. "You speak French, then?" She asked with an elegant gesture towards the writing, which she knew Sombra couldn't read.

" _Oui_. I've been taking classes online." Sombra said as she finally stepped further into the room. She collapsed onto the couch next to Amélie and offered her the bowl of popcorn she'd carried into the rec room from the kitchen. Satya, who was picking out a movie from the base's holodisk collection, turned and frowned at her.

"You detest standardized learning." She said, the question clear. Amé hummed her agreement as she ate a few kernels of popcorn. 

"Ah, but for the loves of my life I would do anything. Even go to school again in order to learn French so I can buy French shirts and fully immerse myself in my girlfriend's culture. Well, one of my girlfriends' cultures. Hindi is really beautiful and really hard."

"First of all, we love you enough to never ask that of you. We know your feelings on the matter." Satya told her as she popped in the holodisk and went to stand in front of her partners on the couch, her hands on her hips.

"Thank you for that." Sombra said with an easy smile.

"Secondly," Satya continued, not to be deterred by the innocent look. ", that is absolutely her shirt and you are also wearing my leggings." Sombra feigned innocence as she plucked gently at the soft, thin fabric that came to just underneath her bellybutton.

"Are you sure?" She asked. Satya looked at Amé in exasperation. 

"Neon blue lotus flowers are not your style, _Chérie_." Amélie said. Satya nodded firmly as her point was supported and took the bowl of popcorn before she arranged herself in Sombra's lap, legs in Amé's.

"Okay, so maybe I took the leggings." Sombra conceded.

"And the shirt." Satya said.

"And the shirt. But I have good a reason."

"Mm, and what is that, _amour_?" Amé asked, pressing a few buttons on the remote to begin the movie.

"Do you two remember the mission I'm leaving for tomorrow?"

"Yes, I put it on all of our schedules so we would not forget." Satya supplied as she fed Sombra a kernel of popcorn. Sombra licked the salt from the tip of her finger and Amé rolled her eyes fondly at the pair. 

"It's, like, a month long recon mission. I can't contact you in any way and I'm going to miss you guys, so I may have stolen a bunch of your clothes and packed them so that I can at least pretend to be with you." Sombra said, tone growing more bashful the longer she went. 

As the movie scrolled through ads that none of the women paid any attention to, Satya and Amé made eye contact, both surprised at the admission their partner had made. 

"I'm gay, sue me." Sombra huffed unhappily. 

"That is not a reasonable motive for drastic legal measures." Satya said as she unclasped her bracelet.

"I know, baby. It's just a saying."

"Well, you do not have to steal my clothes, no matter how gay you are."

"Does that mean you want them back?" Sombra asked with a pout before Satya latched the bracelet around Sombra's wrist, making her beam happily. 

" _Non_ , she means that if you wanted mementos you could have told us." Amé said. She undid the silver necklace that fell over her chest and gently secured it around Sombra's own neck.

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Sombra asked before leaning forward to kiss first Satya, and then Amélie.

"I love you." Satya said to both of them. 

"I love you guys, too." Sombra agreed. 

"I love Satya. Sombra...you are adequate." Amé said after a moment of contemplation. Satya laughed as Sombra scowled and Amélie smiled before she kissed her again.

"Sorry, _amour_ , you are simply too much fun to tease." She demurred. 

"I'm breaking up with both of you." Sombra said. That only made Satya laugh harder and Amé smirked, shaking her head as she turned back to the movie, which was finally starting. 

The bracelet, a gold chain with tiny golden bells hanging from it, and the necklace, silver with a single charm in the form of a stylised swan, did not particularly match. But Sombra didn't need them to. She just needed them to remind her of the women she loved and whose love she was reassured of in the dark of the rec room, the only light coming from the television as they cuddled and watched movies for as long as they could stay awake.

~~~~~ 

That had been almost four weeks ago. As Sombra scrambled to tap out one last message and wiped her drives, that was all she could think about. Their last moments together. Her gaze was continually pulled back to the door and she listened closely to the thundering footfall approaching what had been her undercover apartment. All she could think about was the two women she would be leaving behind if she got caught. 

She couldn't get caught.

"Come on, come on. _Rápido, por favor_." She hissed to the computer. At last. The message was sent. The computer began the process of wiping itself and Sombra hoped it had enough time to finish. 

It didn't, she realized. 

The footsteps were too close, too fast. There was no way it would finish. Sombra frantically glanced around, looking for a way to destroy the computer. If it was done partially or incorrectly then data could be retrieved. That could not happen, her mission would be over and she would have failed. All her work would be for nothing. 

After a moment of panic her hand fell on her translocator. It was the only choice. She ripped the sister translocator off of her belt and attached it to one side of the computer, the opposite side getting the same treatment. She cringed at what she was about to do, and then pressed the button on the side of the translocator. 

The computer tried to phase through itself and ended up a gnarled mess of metal and wiring that was completely unrecognizable when compared to what it had been. 

"There she is!" Someone shouted. Sombra cursed under her breath and sprinted across the room, vaulting through an open window onto the fire escape. The plants she'd been keeping on the sill were toppled in her haste to escape but she didn't particularly care at the moment. If she didn't have her translocator she would simply have to outrun them.

Sombra slid down the fire escape smoothly and took the briefest of moments before deciding which way to run down the alley. Toward the street, she decided, toward people. Toward witnesses who would hopefully make the people chasing her pause.

"Don't let her get away!" Sombra felt searing pain across her back and she let out a scream of anger and pain as her body collapsed without her permission. Damn Vishkar beams.

"Secure her." A voice said. Sombra glared up at the Vishkar agent giving all the orders while two more bound her hands and feet. It was a woman. Indian, with a cold face and haughty expression. She looked so much like Satya when she'd been brainwashed. But Satya had always made her think there was something underneath the architect uniform, this woman just looked like a puppet. 

"I've never minded being a bit rough, but this is going too far, don't you think?" Sombra asked with a flippant smile. 

"Be quiet." The woman demanded sharply. One of the others kicked Sombra in the stomach and she gasped. 

"Not down for banter?" She wheezed. "All the villains are doing it."

"I said _be quiet_." The woman snapped. The binds on her wrists were tightened so much that they bit into her skin. She hissed in pain as she was drug on the ground behind them as they walked out of the alley and then physically forced into the trunk of a very nice looking car. The trunk was slammed and Sombra left in darkness as she felt the car start to move.

She just hoped her message went through.

~~~~~

_I love you. I'm sorry. Leave me._

"Amélie, this cannot be good." Satya said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she looked up at the other woman, who had read the message over her shoulder. It had been sent directly to Sombra's laptop in their room, pinging happily when it was received. 

"No, it cannot." She agreed. She straightened and her face shifted from concerned to completely blank and icy. "We must go." Widowmaker said. Satya schooled her expression and nodded.

"Athena, call Soldier 76 and request his immediate presence in the carrier bay." Symmetra said as she stood.

It took them less than five minutes to grab their pre-packed emergency mission bags and get to the carrier bag, leaving the two impatient women to wait for the older man to arrive.

"What is this all about?" Soldier 76 asked, coming around the corner only to raise an eyebrow at the intense expressions levelled at him. 

"We require immediate access to a small transport and mission resources." Widowmaker said evenly. 

"And why would I authorize that?" Soldier 76 asked.

"Because Sombra has either been killed or captured." Symmetra said sharply. The old soldier across from them stood a bit straighter and his voice was clear with urgency.

"How do you know that?"

"We received a message from her undercover apartment, something she would not have risked if it was not dire." Symmetra said.

"What was the message?" He asked. Widowmaker repeated the message perfectly and he rubbed his fingers against his forehead. 

"I can't sanction a team for a mission to retrieve an agent that technically is still on base." He said slowly. Symmetra stiffened and Widowmaker's face contorted in the beginnings of rage. 

"If, however," he continued, ", the three of you were to decide to take some vacation days I _would_ be able to authorize that. I hear India is beautiful this time of year." Widowmaker and Symmetra exchanged a look and nodded.

"We would like to request vacation days. Immediately."

"Done. Athena, authorize three weeks of vacation for agents Lacroix, Vaswani, and Sombra. Give them access to carrier two and full automated flight authorization. It's just a vacation, so you don't need to bother logging the destinations."

"Of course, Agent Morrison." Athena said. 

"Thank you." Symmetra said with a nod.

"All I did was approve downtime. If you really want to thank me, bring me a souvenir." Soldier 76 said as he turned and began to walk away.

Symmetra and Widowmaker watched him for a moment before turning and quickly walking toward transport two. It was a much smaller version of the transport carrier, barely big enough for a six-person team but plenty for their purpose. 

They were going to get Sombra back, no matter what. 

~~~~~

The necklace and bracelet lay on the floor, amongst the torn remains of her shirt. Her shirt, thankfully. The other two were already going to be so pissed that there was blood on their jewellery, she couldn't imagine how long she'd be sleeping in the rec room if she managed to trash their wardrobe as well. As it was, her shorts were covered in blood and filth and her bra was only still on thanks to the straps. The whip had taken the shirt, and the back of the bra. The taser, which was not meant to be used on bare skin for so long, had burned twin marks into her stomach. 

"What sort of training did you receive with Los Muertos? Did you train others?" A calm male voice asked her.

"I already told you everything." Sombra said, dejected and resigned to her fate. 

"Did Talon re-train you?"

"No. I worked with them, not for them." She said, though she'd already given the answer several times.

"Who are you working with now?" 

"No one. I'm going solo for a bit." The machine attached to the nodes on her temples beeped and the calm male voice sighed.

"Please don't lie to me. I don't like hurting you. I'm trying to help."

"Trying to help." Sombra sneered. "You want your lost toy. You don't even care about me or any of these other questions, you're trying to find the architect that vanished however long ago it was." She knew exactly how long ago it was. She and Amélie had helped her escape their grasp. 

There was silence for a minute, probably the voice being fed instructions. Then the calm male voice was back and her break was over.

"Do you know where architect Vaswani is?" 

"No." Technically not a lie. She didn't know where she was just then, nor had she known where she was for the past month.

"Have you been in contact with architect Vaswani in the past two years?"

"No." The machine next to her beeped again and the calm male voice sighed again.

"If you give me honest answers I don't have to hurt you."

"Go fuck yourself." Sombra snapped. She heard the tell-tale buzz that always preceded the pain, and suddenly she was screaming. Her body twitched as electricity was pumped through it, drawing long, anguished cries from her mouth. The monitor beside her beeped urgently in response to her increased heart rate, though no one paid it much attention. 

"When have you been in contact with architect Vaswani?"

"Who's that?" Sombra asked. Her heat rate was still coming down from the electricity that had just been directed into her, and the machine was already beeping. One small lie made no difference. 

"You have been in contact with our architect. Your own responses and heart rate have shown us that much. What harm would it do to tell us where she is? We can bring her to you." Sombra stared down at her hands, bound to the arms of the chair she was trapped in. She wanted to see Satya again. She wanted to see Amélie. But not like this.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Sombra said.

"Very well." The calm male voice said. It almost sounded sad.

Sombra wouldn't think it sounded sad later, when it pumped electricity through her and made her almost wish she'd just told them what they wanted.

But she would never do that. She would never betray the women she loved. 

~~~~~

Widowmaker and Symmetra sat, still as statues, as they waited to arrive in India. It was tense. Neither of them played any music, nor did they speak. They were both too absorbed in their own thoughts to really pay attention to a conversation, anyway. 

"You are halfway to your destination, agents." Athena announced. Symmetra didn't even look up from the Vishkar schematics she had pulled up on her tablet. Widowmaker glanced out the window and tried to empty her mind, to go into the mindset she relied on when lying in wait for a target. She could sit in one position, completely immobile, for hours on end with not a single complaint and only a vague sense of time passing. This simple transport ride, however, seemed to drag on for an infinity.

~~~~~

How long had Sombra been there? How long had she been asked questions by the calm male voice? It seemed like days. Maybe weeks. She'd been given food and water. She'd been denied food and water. She'd been electrocuted and doused in freezing water and burned by heaters. 

How long had she been there?

"Where is architect Vaswani?"

"I-I don't know." 

"That's okay, I believe you. Do you know architect Vaswani?" She did. She did, but she couldn't tell the voice. She couldn't. The necklace and the bracelet lay on the floor in front of her, covered in her own blood, spat out after physical beatings when electricity wasn't cutting it for them. 

She had to protect them. She had to. 

"Initiate protocol black box. Set key." Sombra said numbly. She had enough biotics intertwined with her brain to control much of her functions, help her and enhance her. That wasn't all they could do.

"Sombra, what are you doing?" The calm male voice asked. It didn't sound calm. "Stop!" Sombra had tortured people herself. She knew that she would break eventually. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't. 

"Proceed with black box. Target..." She paused and felt tears rise up, a lump clog her throat. "Target all connection to Vaswani and Lacroix. Secure key."

"No! Get agents in there! Stop her!" The voice was twisted with rage, it didn't sound like the voice that asked her questions. 

"Execute protocol black box." Sombra said. 

~~~~~

It had been nineteen days. Nineteen days of searching, and breaking in, and interrogating, and killing when they didn't get the answers they wanted. Symmetra and Widowmaker were no closer to finding their partner. 

"This is infuriating. If I had access to the Vishkar database I would find her in an instant, I know exactly how they would encrypt this sort of information." Symmetra growled angrily, pacing back and forth in their hotel room. It was stylish, high-class, something she would have appreciated if the situation were different. 

"If only we had someone who could hack us in." Widowmaker said evenly.

"Yes...if only." Symmetra said, softer than Widowmaker, before she turned. She made the humming noise that said she was in serious thought, though it sounded more distressed than thoughtful.

"What is it?" Amélie asked. She stood from the bed and walked over to Satya, holding out both of her hands in both invitation and question. Satya took her hands, squeezing tightly. She was looking down and not meeting Amélie's gaze. That was okay. Just the same as her not wanting to be touched occasionally, she sometimes also had difficulty making eye contact, especially in stressful situations. 

"I...I am afraid." Satya whispered.

"Of what?" Amélie asked, tone just as hushed. 

"What if we don't find her? What if...what if they did to her what they did to me? What if we're too late? What if she's dead? What if they've moved her from India and we're wasting time? What if...?"

"Hush, deep breaths, _Chérie_. Deep breaths." After a moment of quiet Satya let go of Amélie's hands and held open her arms. Amélie willingly stepped closer and wrapped her arms around the smaller woman, holding her close as she began to shake. 

"I'm afraid, too. But we _will_ find her. There is no other option."

"What if she is...the way I was?" Satya managed to ask.

"If that is the case, we will bring her back to herself. Just like we brought you back. She will be fine. We all will." Amélie told her softly. 

The computer on the desk across from them dinged and the two women separated instantly, Symmetra going over to the computer as Widowmaker habitually checked out the window, looking for threats. 

"The scrambler worked. They had to reset the system." Symmetra said coolly. She typed rapidly for almost five seconds and tapped one last button, staring at the screen as though willing it to do her biding. 

It evidently worked. 

Symmetra smirked in satisfaction as she clicked through page after page of information.

"The reset allowed for my old access to gain entry. Now I must simply..." She broke off her own thought, humming as she continued to work. Widowmaker walked over and watched the process from over Symmetra's shoulder. 

"I have it. I have the information we need." Symmetra announced. "We must leave quickly, there isn't much time. The facility she is currently in is scheduled to be shut down at 3:15 tomorrow afternoon. Prisoner evacuation is set to occurs precisely one hour before that." 

"Then we go now." Widowmaker said simply. She picked up Widow's Kiss from the end of the bed and Satya snatched up her own weapon before allowing Widowmaker to guide them out onto the balcony.

"Where are we going?" Widowmaker asked.

"I will provide a path. Go." She demanded. She stepped close and wrapped both arms around Widowmaker's neck, the other woman holding her waist with one arm before shooting a grappling hook into a nearby building and sending them both off toward their missing target.

~~~~~

Sombra was woken from her nap, the first time she'd been allowed to sleep in what felt like years, by the sound of alarms blaring. Her head whipped up and she scanned the area around her. What were the alarms going off for? Fire? An attack? Her eyes widened. Did Overwatch come for her? Did Gabe find her? She pulled against her bonds for a moment before scowling. She'd been trying to escape the entire time she'd been in there, it wasn't like the binds were miraculously going to loosen now. 

There was a thump on the other side of the door she could see just out of the corner of her left eye. She tensed before quickly shutting her eyes and letting her chin fall back to her chest. The door knob made the smallest noise as it was turned and the door opened, letting in someone she couldn't see.

"Ah, there you are." A smooth, feminine voice said. Sombra kept her head down, not giving any sign she was awake. 

"Come on, dear. We've got to get moving." Another woman said, gently shaking Sombra's shoulder. There were two women? They didn't sound like Talon, but she couldn't know for sure. 

"I will carry her." The first said, and Sombra felt heat behind her back before the bonds holding her hands there snapped. The ones around her ankles were next and as soon as they loosened she snapped to alertness and rocketed out of the chair, instantly putting it between her and the women.

"Who are you and why are you here?" She asked darkly, staring them down. One was tall, much taller than her, and appeared to have purple skin in the awful lighting of the interrogation room. The other was still taller than her but shorter than the other and definitely looked like she belonged with Vishkar, complete with one of their weapons in her hand and an immaculately impassive face. Impassive until she exchanged a confused glance with the woman next to her.

"Sombra, you know who we are." She said. 

"We do not have time for this, we need to leave." The first urged. Ah, she was the one that suggested she carry Sombra out.

"How do you know my name?" Sombra asked suspiciously. The purple woman frowned.

"You truly do not know who we are." She said, like she was coming to an unwanted realisation. 

"I have no idea who either of you are, sorry babe."


End file.
